Interested applicants have until 15 January 2018 to apply to join Traction Camp Accelerator which will begin next year in February.Application is open to all residents of the Eastern African countries of Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, DRC, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda. Growth-Oriented Startups from the named countries are eligible to participate.

Upon the close of applications on the 15th of January, a panel of industry experts with wide expertise in entrepreneurship, business development, software development and investor relations will assess startups and select the startups that will get a chance to scale their business through a tailor-made acceleration process designed to take businesses through a rapid-cycle competitive curriculum and matches them quickly to appropriate business mentor and capital.

The criteria for the selection will be guided by these factors:

User/Customer Problem

What customer pain are you solving? Is it a problem worth solving ?

Solution to your Customer’s Problem

How are you solving the customer’s stated problem? what are the top features of your solution that specifically address the customer problem. What validates that the solution resonates with the customer’s problem

Customer Profile

What customer segments are you prioritizing? Can you provide a generalized description of your ideal customer?

Customer Acquisition & Channels

What is your customer journey?, What customer segments are you prioritizing, what is your path to the customers. What channels are you using to reach the customer segments?

Revenue Streams

How are you making money by providing the solution given the current nature of the market place. Have you conducted experiments on any of the potential revenue streams? what were the outcomes?

Team Composition & Commitment Level

What is the composition of your team: complementarity of soft and hard skills, suitability of team structure to deliver on business goals, sense of commitment to the startup by team members is vital. Show the skills & experience that the team members have? Demonstrate the team members commitment e.g do you have founders’ agreement, vesting schedules?

Team composition and complementarity of skills, suitability of team structure to deliver on business goals, sense of commitment to the startup

Competitors and competitive advantage

What are the existing alternatives to your solution? Do you know who your competitors / collaborators are? What differentiates you from the competition? what can be done through existing alternatives that your solution cannot do? What can your solution do that your competition cannot do?

Market Traction

What has the business achieved so far? This could be one more of the following :-

How’s your roadmap or projections for growth within the next 24 months for, it could be in terms of: – Revenue, Users, Key partnerships & Investments etc And most importantly what will it take to achieve desired milestones?